Wader Records and Observations in Mid-Southern Victoria, 1963-1965 by F
246 SMITH, Wader Records, 1963-65 [ Bird Watcher However, a few minutes later, it rose up from the reeds and flew for about one hundred yards to a line of cyprus trees, where it disappeared into the dense foliage at the top of one of the tallest trees. During this flight it was harried persistently by two Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxena). The European Little Bittern, which is only of subspecific difference to the Australian bird, has been observed to perch in trees, but the habit is unusual and apparently it is confined to migrants on their · annual journey to and from Africa. F. C. R. Jourdain, in The Handbook of British Birds, Vol. 3, p. 153, discussing the cryptic postures of the European race, states that the Little Bittern "has even been known to allow itself to be captured with hand". Charles F . Belcher, in The Birds of the District of Geelong, Australia (1914), writes, "Mr. J. F. Mulder has a specimen which his son caught with his hand, after some manoeuvring on his part, and not a little fight shown by the bird". Another live capture is recorded by A. J. Campbell in Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds (1909). -M. J. Carter, Frankston, Victoria. 19 I 1/66. Wader Records and Observations in Mid-Southern Victoria, 1963-1965 By F. T. H. SMITH, Kew, Victoria The ensuing records and notes, on the Charadriiformes, are from my personal encounters with birds of the group between ap proximately August 1963 and May 1965. In this period, two complete north-south migratory wader movements by several species, and one complete east-west movement by a single species, the Double-banded Dotterel (Charadrius bicinctus), were ex perienced.
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